MANCHESTER, N.H. (Sep 9): Rockland’s Brian Reid is among the masters of the annual New Hampshire Furniture Masters Association’s live auction Sunday, Sept. 20, at the Currier Museum of Art.

This year’s event, titled Unsurpassed Artistry: New Hampshire Furniture Masters, features newly-created pieces by 20 master furniture makers, including Reid, as well as two participants from the Furniture Masters’ Prison Outreach Program.

Brian Reid’s “2700 Squares” sideboard is crafted from black cherry and sugar maple.

Reid has been a furniture maker since 1983. He attended Parnham College in southwest England, an institution founded by John Makepeace and Robert Ingham, two pioneers in the studio furniture movement. Reid specializes in making contemporary versions of furniture from early Modernism with an emphasis is on surface decoration. Reid teaches furniture making at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and art centers and colleges in America and Europe. He is a designated Searchlight Artist of the American Craft Council and has been published in numerous books and magazines.

The evening’s festivities get underway 6 p.m. with the traditional gala reception and silent auction. The latter features smaller, modestly priced handmade items by the Masters and serves as a prelude to the evening’s main event, the live auction at 7:30 p.m.

Reid’s entry for this year’s live auction is “2700 Squares,” inspired by a sideboard designed by Eliel Saarinen in 1929. He accentuated the form through the wrapping of a changing pattern of squares over the entire surface of the piece, including the substantial ogee employed on the base. This took patience and precision, two of the things Reid said he loves most about his craft.

“To have the opportunity to create a treasure, a work born of unfettered passion, is a rare opportunity. The NHFMA auction gives this to me,” he said.

Tickets are $75 in advance, $82.50 at the door, and entitle the holder to attend the gala reception and auction and receive a color catalog documenting the works. To view this year’s pieces, purchase tickets or obtain additional information, visit furnituremasters.org.

The Herald Gazette Art/Entertainment Editor Dagney C. Ernest can be reached at 207-594-4401 or by e-mail at dernest@villagesoup.com.

Source : http://knox.villagesoup.com